FateStay Night: Actress Again
by EmperorDraco7
Summary: When young Shirou Emiya's life is turned upside down by the appearence of the Servant Saber, the young man finds himself neck deep into a ruthless competition, in which everyone competes to fulfill their wishes... Dark truths await for Shirou and Saber as they partecipate in the Grail War...
1. The Boy Who Would Be A Hero

Disclaimer: I don't own Fate/Stay Night or anything else from the Nasuverse at all, though I really have enjoyed the anime and the movie as well as a bit of the prologue from the visual novel.

Fate/Stay Night Actress Again

By EmperorDraco7 and co-written by Lily Nadesico

Shirou Emiya, a young man who wished to become a hero like his father, was completely silent as he glanced at a beautiful a young woman with a slender physique and light, soft blonde hair, donning a blue dress resembling a ball gown with a silverish armor on top of it, and had her hair braided with iron boots and eyes that are green and filled with courage as something to be amazed by. She glanced down before him without showing a hint of emotion. "I am Saber, your servant… I have come in response to your summons." She said with a serious tone to her voice. "And you… you are my master, correct?"

He didn't say a single word as he was wondering why he was unable to do so but concluded that it was due to all the confusion around him since he was marked for death by a mysterious assassin from having witnessed a battle prior. Though he immediately ruled that out as he was speechless as he glanced at the beauty of the girl who appeared before him in awe. "Your master?" he finally managed to speak, wondering what is going on. "I'm your master?"

"Yes, you summoned me and as a Saber, I heeded your call… What are your orders, master?" said the woman in question, explaining why she is here before him despite him being unsure of what to think of the whole situation. "My sword will be by your side from now on. Whatever fate awaits you, awaits me as well. The accord between us has now been formed."

"What?" asked Shirou, still trying to take in everything that has happened just now but before he could ask her, she headed out of the shed much to his dismay and promoted him to go after here. "Hey wait!" However, as soon as he got outside, he saw a battle was taking place between the girl and that mysterious assassin though there was something off about it as she looked like she was attacking her opponent with nothing at all. _What the? Her weapon is invisible._ He thought, realizing what was happening.

However, so also did the mysterious person who had attacked Shirou just a few minutes before, and who was now looking at Saber in a mixture of surprise and admiration. The man in question looked pretty young, and did not seem to be more than twenty years old, wearing a tight, form-fitting blue bodysuit covered in silver-tinted runic protection, showing an impressive yet agile-looking physique, and he had blue hair tied in a loose ponytail at the back of his head. He had a very intense stare in his blood-red eyes, and a long spear with a crimson handle and point was being held in his right hand.

"So, it seems that a new Servant has just entered the fray!" he commented in a jovial tone, not seeming concerned at all about the young girl in armor facing him now. In fact, he almost seemed to be looking forward to the battle. "Well, this only makes things a lot more interesting. You are a Saber type Servant, right? This should be an interesting fight!"

The blonde girl called Saber did not waver and held her sword tightly in her right hand, keeping concentrated on the blue-haired man, who twirled his lance in the air for a moment, showing off his skill, and then stood on guard, holding his weapon with both hands. Shirou was still very surprised about the whole deal, and found himself staring at Saber and the blue-haired man as they faced off against each other… and then, as if obeying to a single order, they dashed towards each other. The blue-haired young man smiled and tried a powerful thrust with his spear, which Saber countered with a circular swipe from her weapon. There was a deafening sound of metal clashing against metal when the two mighty weapons met each other in midair, and Shirou saw the crimson spear being held away from Saber's body by seemingly thin air: this confirmed to him that Saber's sword was in fact invisible. So surprised he was, in fact, that only then he seemed to focus on another problem – that girl was going up by herself against that spear-wielding warrior, without anyone helping her, and armed with nothing but an invisible sword. Sure, she seemed to be a competent enough fighter, and was easily holding out against her opponent, skillfully dodging his thrusts and keeping him at bay with a series of blows from her invisible blade… but still, Shirou couldn't just stand there and let someone else risk his or her life for him… He looked around, trying to find something that could allow him to help out Saber…

The spear-wielding fighter was lightly scratched on the arm by Saber's sword, and backed away a couple step before clutching the wound and giving the blonde an excited smile. "Hehehee… not bad, really!" he said. "You are a skilled fighter. It is just my luck to have run into someone as strong as you are."

It was then that Saber decided to charge right back into the fight, attempting to slice right through her opponent only for the Spear to save him by blocking each slash that she performed on him. "Well Lancer, it seems that the situation has changed" she said to him, with a serious glance. "If you won't come to me then I'll come to you."

Shirou was still in awe by just how strong the young woman is; much more powerful than the man he had seen previously before he was stabbed by the spear that belonged to the opponent that she was currently fighting against. _Just what the hell is going on here?_ He wondered, while he was glad that nobody else was present as he didn't wish for any innocent lives to end just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time like him.

"Let me ask you a question first, your Noble Phantasm is a sword right?" the man known as Lancer asked the young woman, not noticing a smirk forming on her face upon hearing the question as if he was suspecting what the invisible weapon truly was but decided to 'answer' it for now.

"Maybe or maybe not, it could be an axe or not… maybe it might be something completely different like a bow…" her sly smile grew even wider, much to Lancer's slight annoyance but no matter… he has yet to reveal what his Noble Phantasm is and she will be the first Servant to ever experience it's power. The blue-haired man parried a few blows from Saber's invisible blade with his blood-red lance and quickly backflipped out of harm's way, before landing on his feet a few metres away and smiling again, that roguish, amused grin that told both Shirou and Saber that he was greatly enjoying the battle.

"My, my… you sure are providing me with a battle that tests my limits! I respect that in an opponent… and so, I find myself forced to use my own trump card!" he said, easily twirling his spear in his hands. He struck a fighting stance and got ready for another round, while Saber simply took a defensive position and stood ready to repel him.

However, what neither Saber nor Shirou expected was for Lancer to suddenly jump high in the air, his spear glowing angrily with energy as he got ready to thrust it at Saber!

"Can you dodge this?" Lancer exclaimed. "The Spear Of Striking Death, Gae Bolg!"

With a roar like thunder, the glowig spear dashed through the air and raced towards Saber, who easily saw the attack coming and got ready to dodge it… surely, it looked like it was a very powerful attack, and Saber knew it could deal a huge amount of damage if it connected. However, while it was very fast, it was telegraphed enough that she would be able to easily avoid it, so she stepped aside and got ready to counter as Lancer landed from his leap…

"Saber, watch out!" she heard Shirou's voice call out to her, and she raised her head in surprise, only to be completely flabbergasted when Lancer's Gae Bolg turned around in midair, defying all laws of physics, and made a beeline for her heart! Shirou rushed towards the swordswoman and tried to push her out of the way of the spear, not caring if he was also risking his own life in the process… but even as he did so, the spear turned again, as if it had a mind of its own, and struck Saber, penetrating her breastplate as if it was made in tissue paper, and lodging itself in her chest, dangerously close to her heart! Her eyes widening in pain, Saber fell to the ground and grabbed the spear with both hands, forcing it out of her chest before throwing the weapon away and clutching her wound with her free hand.

"Saber!" Shirou exclaimed, kneeling close to the swordswoman in worry. He was relieved to see Saber standing up and managing to recover just a little, even with such a wound… while Lancer, who had just landed, seemed to be quite impressed with Saber surviving such a powerful blow! "Saber, how are you feeling? Come on, let me fight at your side. I can't just stay here and do nothing while you risk your own life for me!"

"Master, stay back…" Saber told him, climbing to her feet after a moment of dizziness. "You are no match for a Servant, you should know that…"

"Well, well… that's a surprise, isn't it?" Lancer said, genuinely impressed with the outcome. "I do not recall anyone ever surviving my Gae Bolg, the cursed Spear of Striking Death. You should thank your luck, as without it you would not have survived."

"You… what is the meaning of this?" Shirou demanded to know, as Gae Bolg floated back into Lancer's hands. Saber's wound seemed to have stopped bleeding, but Saber was still in quite a bit of pain. "Why have you attacked us, and what is this Servant and Master deal?"

Lancer looked away for a moment, seemingly uninterested in answering… and then sighed as if in disappointment. "I would love to stay here and chat a little more, but I'm afraid some more guests are around, and I'm beginning to feel like I'm overmatched. Therefore, I'm afraid I will have to retreat for now! It's been fun though, and I look forward to our next bout, miss! Be seeing ya!"

"Hey, hold on a second!" Saber exclaimed, but she was too late as Lancer leapt away and disappeared in the distance.

"He's gone…" muttered Shirou, running up towards Saber in order to make sure that she was alright as that spear had managed to wound her pretty badly. He stopped once he was close enough and when she turned to face him, there was nothing but silence between the two as the mark on her breastplate slowly faded away to nothing. "Just who… who are you?"

"Must you even ask that? I am a Saber, your servant" explained the young woman, still having her hand where the wound was inflicted despite it having looked like it had healed itself; she needed her master to properly treat it. "As I recall, you were the one who summoned me so you should know all too well why I'm here."

"You're a Saber servant?" asked Shirou, still confused by what was going on while Saber nodded to confirm of who she is, making him wonder even more on the events that had taken place earlier.

"Yes so perhaps it's easier if you just call me Saber" answered the blonde-haired servant with a serious expression on her face while glancing at her master.

"Well okay, that's kind of an odd name… my name is Shirou Emiya, so then my next question is..."

Saber didn't say a word, yet there was something about Shirou's name that sounded familiar to her but decided against asking that, at least not yet. "I see… Now I understand, you aren't exactly a typical master are you?" she said, catching Shirou off-guard as she had been calling him master ever since she appeared before him not too long ago.

"Master?" he asked once again, wanting to know how he is even a master to begin with since they both seem to be the same age.

"I'm right, but be that as it may you are still my master" explained Saber, which seemed to make Shirou rather uncomfortable whenever she called him that but she wasn't done with what she has to say. "Now that our pact has been concluded, I will never once do anything to betray you."

"Hey, hold on a sec! Stop calling me master, will you? It's freaking me out…" Shirou told the young woman, more so as he wanted more answers to the questions that were currently floating around in his mind which Saber seemed to understand.

"Then I will call you Shirou. Yes, I think I like the sound of that name much better anyway" said Saber, it was after she spoke that Shirou started to feel some serious pain on his left hand and clutched it, revealing a symbol of what appeared to be a sword on the back of it. Yet to the swordswoman, she could sense that there was something nearby which made her frown then she turned her attention back towards him as another servant could be nearby and if that is the case, then said servant's master would be present as well. "Shirou, heal this wound for me…"

"What? Do you really think I can do that?" he asked her, despite the fact that he wasn't sure how he would heal Saber to begin with and a frown formed on his face as he looked back. "Sorry, that's way beyond the level of magic I can do and besides, it looks like it already healed on its own."

Slightly disappointed, Saber turned away and said. "Fine, I still have plenty of strength… My own regeneration only took care of the exposed part, never the less it shouldn't hinder me in one more battle…" With that, she ran off in order to find the enemy servant and master that she had sensed before, much to Shirou's dismay.

"Hey, hold on!" he called out, but it she was already gone and he mentally cursed himself as he ran off in the same direction, hoping that she wouldn't do anything reckless in her injured state.

* * *

><p>In the distance, a mysterious young girl with long black hair tied in a couple of pigtails, wearing a red shirt with a black skirt and black leggings and shoes was watching the scene from a point where she couldn't be seen, the wind lightly blowing her long hair and her blue eyes narrowing in a mysterious way as she watched the whole incident.<p>

"This is something I didn't expect." She admitted, seemingly talking to herself. "So, Emiya actually became a Master, huh? And his servant is none other than Saber. This is really unexpected; I didn't think that guy had it in him. What do you say about this, Archer?"

From the darkness, an imposing dark-skinned man with short white hair, a red overcoat and a cold expression seemed to just appear out of nowhere, staring at the place where Saber and Shirou were standing only a few moments before. "That young man is not to be underestimated, Rin. He may be an inexperienced Magus, but I think he has got a lot of potential and might become a wild card in this Grail War." The mysterious man called Archer stated in a stern voice. "I would advise you to keep an eye out for him."

The girl called Rin Tohsaka nodded in understanding. "Yes, I can see that. I cannot let anyone claim the Grail in my place." She stated. "But for now, I'll be content to watch how he does. If he turns out to be a potential threat, we'll eliminate him and his Servant."

Archer nodded, while looking at the retreating form of Shirou. That young man was just what he was looking for… now, all that remained to do was to wait for the right moment to do what he was there to do… and soon after, he would be free after all that time…

* * *

><p>"Saber! Wait up!" Shirou called after the blonde swordswoman, causing her to turn towards him with a slightly dubious look on her face. The red-haired young man sighed as he finally caught up with her. For someone who had just almost taken a spear to the heart, Saber sure could be fast… "Phew… boy, just wait a moment, will you? Isn't it dangerous for you to walk around while you're still injured? I mean, I see you can heal on your own, but still…"<p>

Shirou couldn't finish his sentence as he felt the back of his hand burning him again, trying his best to fight off the pain he was experiencing and glanced at the symbol that was present…. The same strange mark that resembled a tattoo he saw on his hand before Saber had taken off not too long back and had no idea on where it came from or why it was hurting him. "What the…" he barely managed to speak

"That is a Command Spell… It is the three claims on a Servant's obedience and the life of a Master, please do not use it thoughtlessly." explained Saber, yet it would be a few seconds before the pain he was experiencing subsided enough for him to get a proper glance at the mark then he turned back towards Saber, who had her attention out in the direction she was previously headed for. "There are two enemies nearby. Judging by their presence, it should only take a few seconds to defeat them."

"Enemies nearby?" he asked himself, before witnessing Saber jumping lightly off to find those enemies and something soon clicked inside of him. "Hold on, is she really going to fight again?!"

Muttering another curse, he ran as fast as he could to try and catch up with the mysterious girl in question, but to no avail, easily losing sight of her. "Saber, where are you?" he called out, searching through the dark which wasn't easy especially with the moon being hidden at the worse possible time "Huh?" it was then that he heard something nearby and ran to a small road with sign of anyone on it, which was a relief since he didn't want any innocent people getting hurt.

Needless to say, he stopped in his tracks as he would soon witness that Saber was present and is currently confronting a familiar man in red, the same man who was facing off against Lancer last night. _Wait a minute, I remember him!_ he thought in disbelief, thinking back to that fateful night and how he nearly died when he was impaled by Lancer's weapon, yet was somehow alive for some reason he didn't know why. _Well, now might be the right time to get some answers. I'd like to understand something more about this business of Servants and Masters…_

"Wait a minute!" Shirou exclaimed, approaching the man in red. Both him and Saber turned to the red-haired young man, and Shirou could see that the mysterious stranger looked to be about in his thirties, with dark skin and short white hair, and he had a mysterious aura about him… he looked somewhat world-weary, as if he was some sort of traveler who had seen it all. However, the fact that Saber was regarding him with suspect meant that there was obviously more to him than met the eye, and Shirou felt like he could trust Saber's judgment on this matter, for some reason.

"Saber?" he asked, before addressing the mysterious stranger. "And… who are you? Are you another one of those… Servants?"

"You know, Emiya, you shouldn't say such things like they were nothing." A female voice intervened, and out of the darkness walked out a young girl whom Shirou immediately recognized, much to his surprise: dressed in a red shirt with a black skirt, black thigh-high socks and shoes, and her raven hair tied in a couple of pigtails at the sides of her head, she walked beside the man in red, regarding Shirou with dead seriousness, despite the scathing humor in her voice. "The Grail War isn't something that normal people should know about. There are things ordinary people are not meant to know, and this is one of them."

Shirou blinked in surprise. "Ah… is that you, Tohsaka? You… you know something of this whole mess as well?"

"You know this woman, Shirou?" Saber asked, lowering her invisible weapon just a little, while the dark-skinned white-haired man kept regarding her and Shirou with a cold appraising eye, never showing any emotion.

The red-haired young man nodded, still shocked by the revelation. "Yes… she's one of my schoolmates, Rin Tohsaka." He answered, taking a good look at both the girl and what appeared to be her Servant. "She's an honor student who is well-regarded at my school… but I had no idea she was actually…"

"A Master, you were going to say?" Rin answered, shooting a dirty look towards Shirou. "Yeah, you could say that; even though I would have preferred to have a Saber-class Servant myself in order to take part in the Fifth Grail War. But, that's not for me to decide."

"I don't really understand this whole deal with Servants and Masters…" Shirou answered. "And what is this Grail War, exactly? You seem to know more than I do about it…"

Rin had an irritated look on her face, and then turned her attention towards Archer. "Can you turn into spirit form for a while? I'm pissed right now." she told him before glancing back at Shirou. "I can't calm down unless I make him realize what kind of a situation he's in. You won't have anything to do until then, besides Saber won't lower her sword as long as you're present."

"I understand, if I may warn you however, what you are about to do is needless." Archer explained to his Master, knowing that he had no choice but to obey and disappeared without a trace much to Shirou's shock.

"Tohsaka, what was that all about?" he asked the raven-haired girl, yet she closed her eyes as this was something that needed to be discussed with him away from any witnesses in the area. "How did he…"

"Let's talk inside, I take it that you don't know anything right Emiya?" she said while facing the entrance, having figured that he would be oblivious about the war that was occurring between other servants and the only way he would be better prepared is to know the whole story. "You can rest assured that I'll tell you everything, even if you say you don't want to know."

With that in mind, she went towards the entrance only for Shirou to stop her in her tracks as he would see a smile on her face, unlike the one she had previously. "What are you thinking?" he asked her, which made the smile disappear for a moment.

"Are you that stupid?" she asked him, she is rather astounded by this and wanted to put it in more clearly so he can better understand. "I'm thinking about a lot of things, that's way I want to talk to you. It's alright to be surprised by sudden turns of events but it might cost you your life if you don't just accept it. Incidentally, do you understand that now is one of those times?"

"Well I…" Shirou wasn't sure how to respond to the honor student's question, which she gave another smirk and had an idea on where the two can further talk on the issue at hand.

"It's fine if you understand. So let's go to your place..." suggested Rin, and then turned to face Saber, who still had her invisible weapon raised at the female master while at the same time not so willing to trust her right now. "You're fine with that too right Saber? I'll explain things to Emiya in return for sparing my life."

"It is not my way to attack an opponent who cannot fight back." Saber stated. "Furthermore, Shirou does seem to consider you a friend. Therefore, I will not try anything against you."

"That is satisfactory." Rin said with a slight nod. The group entered Shirou's house after taking off their shoes, and Shirou motioned for Rin and Saber to sit down at the family table, wanting all of them to sit comfortably before the issue could be discussed.

"Okay, here we are… I think we should be able to speak about this whole Grail War issue without anyone listening on us." Shirou said, before looking around suspiciously. "Hmm… on second thought, I still need you to wait a moment before we start discussing this. Can you wait for a moment?"

Rin blinked in surprise at this. "Er… Yeah, I guess we can wait." She answered. "But what seems to be the problem?"

Shirou stood up, without answering, and crept towards the kitchen, taking a look there. As he noticed something – or better say, someone – sneaking up to the table upon which a few cookies had been placed. With a sigh, Shirou walked up to the table as well and gently but firmly grabbed a hand that was trying to scoop up a few cookies.

"Seriously, big sister Taiga." He said. "One would think you'd have learned it by now."

The person in question was a young woman in her mid-twenties to early thirties, with short light brown hair, wearing a yellow dress with green stripes all over it, and a green apron-like overall upon it. She made a childish face and pouted at Shirou. "Awww, you're soooo mean, Shirou. What's your damage if I eat one of the cookies you've baked, now?" she exclaimed.

"You know you shouldn't eat them separate from meals, don't you?" the red-haired young man answered. Taiga Fujimura, the English teacher at Shirou's school as well as his legal guardian, sighed in defeated and chuckled to herself.

"I know, I know… I can never get away with anything when you're around, huh, Shirou?" she joked. "Well… I do hope everything went ok today."

Shirou felt for a moment the temptation of telling Taiga about Saber, Lancer, Rin and the Grail War… but he quickly quashed it. It was too dangerous for her to get involved. "Oh… don't worry, big sister, everything went well. I… just had a couple friends of mine come over to dinner, if you don't mind. Of course, I'll be the one doing the cooking."

"Oh, but that's great to now!" Taiga exclaimed in a jolly way. "Perhaps one of them is that nice Sakura Matou girl in the archery cub?"

Shirou chuckled nervously for a moment. "Actually, no… you know how she always has to be home early." He stated. "It's Tohsaka and… er… one of her friends."

"Aw, bummer." Taiga murmured. "Oh, well, it's no problem anyway. I'll be keeping you company, if you don't mind."

Shirou gulped silently. He hated to have to lie to Taiga, but there wasn't much else to do. "Of course we'd love to have you around, big sister." He said. "But first, we need to discuss… some private matters, so to speak, on our own. We… er… kind of need to be alone for that."

"Of course, Shirou. I don't want to intrude in private matters." Taiga answered with a short nod.

Shirou gave a light smile before heading out at to the porch, since it would be the best spot for his conversation with Rin to remain private without Taiga knowing about what is currently happening, though in a way it still felt that it was a strange situation that he was now in as he was actually interacting with Rin Tohsaka, the school's number one idol and someone he had admired. Outside, Rin examined the shattered shard of glass in her hand and to his surprise, he watched as the glass began to reassemble itself back together until it was good as new like it was never smashed to pieces at all. "There, that's better..." she said, now that that has been taken care of, there's still a matter of important business to attend to. "I expect that you are at least capable of that Emiya."

Needless to say, Shirou was rather impressed with what the girl had done and something that he himself wouldn't be able to do. "Awesome, are you kidding? I can't do anything like that" he told her, even though she had a rather unimpressed expression on her face which was soon replaced with her own look of surprise upon learning that.

"What? You can't be serious! That's the first thing they teach you" she said, wondering how he can even have a servant like Saber if he wasn't that good of a Magus, she herself had been studying her entire life in the ways of magic.

"Well I'm sorry, but I only know the few things that my dad told me and I'm afraid even that stuff is nothing formal."

Hearing this, Rin felt rather disappointed at Shirou and said. "Huh? So you're saying that you can't created a pact, control the five elements or anything?" she asked, a shake of his head confirmed that he wasn't that experienced to do those things and she lowered her head. "So you're a complete novice then?"

"No, but I can do reinforcement spells" he replied, though once again Rin wasn't very impressed by this.

"Of all the magic you chose to learn, you chose that?" she asked with a small huff, not wanting to believe that she was interacting with someone who is inexperienced in magic right now and turned away. "Are you sure that there isn't anything else you can do?"

Shirou frowned again, shaking his head again. "No, that's it…"

"How can someone like you summon Saber?" With that in mind, she needed to properly explain what Shirou had gotten himself into by calling the blonde-haired servant into the real world after a quick glance at Saber for a while. "I'm guessing that you have no clue about the situation you're in… You've been dragged into a tournament known as the Holy Grail War, a battle royal between seven masters."

"What are you talking about?" asked Shirou, still having no clue on what this Holy Grail War was or what it has to do with him to begin with. With another serious expression on her face, it seemed that he deserved to know the full story on the war that he was now going to be part of.

"You recently had a stigma appear on the palm of your hand, right? Those three command seals are your mark as a master." reminded human girl, thinking back to the symbol she had seen when he stopped Saber from attacking her and Archer. "So you see Emiya, you are definitely a master."

Remaining silent, Shirou took a look at the command spells that he now bore as the female Tohsaka continued. "Every few decades, seven masters are chosen… each master is granted a servant. Once that happens, the battle to obtain the Holy Grail begins to unfold." She started thinking back to when she became Archer's master which occurred two days prior to this night. "I was chosen to be a master as well. As long as you have your command seals, your servant will continue to obey you… the command seals give you absolute authority over them. Those seals are what make them obey your will, they can even force them to do something they don't want to…" Her attention returned towards the young male, looking him in the face. "However, each time you force them against their will, you will lose a command so must always keep your last command."

"Hold on, I still don't get any of this!" snapped Shirou, he couldn't believe that he had this kind of responsibility and wasn't too sure that he liked the idea at all or having to fight against other masters and servants in this so-called war that Rin's talking about while watching her approaching Saber, examining her for nearly a few seconds.

"It looks as if you still haven't fully materialized. I assume that it's because of your master… his incompetence must have interfered with your summoning" she told the female servant, suspecting that it was due to Shirou's lack of experience a master and as magus which Saber silently nodded.

"Correct, Shirou doesn't possess nearly enough magical power to complete the process so I can't become a spirit here and regenerating my force would take time" answered the swordswoman, having a stern expression while looking Rin in the eye.

"Good grief, if I was your master I could take care of both those problems in a matter of seconds" Rin had turned away and gave a small sigh, she never would have thought that it would be that difficult for Shirou to do such a simple task as healing his own servant and such, she didn't experience that kind of problem with Archer at all.

Shirou didn't like where this is getting, frowning once again. "So then… are you're saying that I'm not fit to be a master?" he asked the female master, getting her to look at him with a look of annoyance.

"You're not even close, genius!" she replied, making him unsure of what else to say and without another thought, the girl knew that there was only one thing left to do before everything is fully-cleared up to the orange-haired young man. "Okay then… We should get going."

"Go where?"

"We're going to pay a visit to the man who oversees this whole war" answered Rin, giving another smirk much like the one she had when Shirou chose to spare her life before much to his wondering what kind of person would oversee a war taking place that nobody else in Japan is even aware of. With a sigh, the young newly-minted Master stood up, as Rin and Saber did the same thing, and began taking off the plates from the table. He was rather surprised to see that Saber had no less than three empty bowls of rice by her side, though.

"Huh? Saber, you mean to tell me… that you managed to eat all of that while we were chatting?" he asked the blonde Servant, who nonchalantly wiped her mouth clean and took a sip of water.

"Being manifest in this world and using my powers takes a lot out of me." She explained, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Eating helps replenish my mana."

"Okay… guess I had never thought about it under this point of view…" Shirou chuckled in embarrassment, thinking it was in fact only natural. "Alright then, Tohsaka… who is this person we are going to talk to?"

"An old acquaintance of my father, one Kirei Kotomine." Rin explained, wearing a somewhat annoyed expression on her face. "To be honest, I don't like him very much. He's kind of a shady guy, and he always gives me a vibe of knowing more than he lets on. However, there is no denying that he is pretty knowledgeable about the workings of the Grail War, and he never told me any actual lie. I think he could actually be a help to you as well."

"Alright… I guess I need to thank you, Tohsaka!" Shirou thanked the black-haired maga with a small nod.

Rin grunted in annoyance and crossed her arms, looking in the other direction. "Hmph… now, don't get strange ideas, Emiya. I'm not doing this because I care about you or how you fare in this war. I just thought it would be fair to give you a fighting chance. Even though we might actually end up facing each other in battle soon enough. And remember, this is not a fighting game or things like that. You lose, you die, and there's no second place."

"I… understand…" Shirou answered with a slight chuckle, before turning back to the kitchen and warning Taiga about him going out so late in the evening. "Big sister Taiga, I will have to go out for now. Don't worry about me, I will be back before midnight!"

"Okay, Shirou! I'm definitely not stopping you!" the perky English teacher happily answered. "I promise I will not eat you out of the house, okay?"

Shirou chuckled slightly at Taiga's joke, as he knew Taiga was a bit of a glutton and he needed to take care that she didn't end up eating too much. "Hehehee… okay, I'll put my trust in you. I will be back soon anyway!" he said, before going out along with Rin and Saber.

* * *

><p>The walk to the place Rin was talking about was surprisingly brief, but much more surprising was the fact that Shirou, Saber and Rin found themselves in front of a church, and a rather small one at that. "Huh? Is… is this really the place, Tohsaka? This Kotomine guy you were talking about is a priest, or something like that?" he asked. When Rin nodded slightly in asset, Shirou cleared his voice and went on. "Sorry for asking this question, but I never thought someone from the Church would know anything about this… Grail War, or whatever it is."<p>

"You'd be surprised, Emiya." Rin answered. "Don't think that the Church isn't involved in supernatural matters. In fact, the church does act as an arbiter in internal disputes of the Mages Association, and they are responsible for starting important operation like vampire hunts through the Burial Agency."

"Vampire hunts?" Shirou asked in amazement. "You mean… there are actually vampires roaming the world as we speak?"

"You really know nothing, do you?" Rin said in annoyance, putting an hand to her face. "And someone like you actually managed to become Saber's Master? The mind boggles, for sure."

"Vampires always existed alongside humanity." Saber explained. "It is just that there are so few of them that their existence an easily remain a secret. That, and most of them are objectively paranoid and secretive enough that even knowing about their existence is extremely difficult. But I guess this is neither the time nor the place for discussing the matter."

"You're right. We're here to speak to Kotomine right now." Rin stated. With an heavy sigh, Shirou walked to the door of the small church and slowly pushed it inwards, as he and the two girls entered a small, cold but rather well-lit main room with several seats lined in front of a small altar, where a tall man in clerical robes was lighting a few candles. As Shirou and the girls slowly made their way into the church, the man turned to them with a pleasant smile on his face, greeting them with a nod.

"Come in peace in the house of God, young ones. How may I help you?" he asked, recognizing Rin at once.

Shirou took a good look at the man in front of him. Kirei Kotomine was a good-looking, handsome man who seemed to be in his mid-thirties at most, towering at more than 6 feet of height, with shoulder-long black hair and a shaven face, wearing a blue clerical coat and black shirt and trousers, along with black shoes. He had a golden cross hanging by his neck, and his grey eyes seemed calm but had a somewhat unearthly quality to them, as if something was roaring to get freed from within his soul. He was certainly bulky and well-built, though not overly so, and Shirou found himself wondering if this man wasn't a martial artist of some kind. He certainly gave Shirou this vibe.

"I've brought the seventh master to meet with you and talk with you…" she explained to her teacher, seeing him at the only one who can explain to Shirou everything about the Holy Grail War and the costs at stake in this conflict. "He's technically a magus but he's unbelievably inept and it pained me to ignore it."

Kotomine had started grinning quite a bit as he examined the boy right in front of him and said. "Tell me my son, what would your name be?" This made Shirou recoil rather slightly but kept a serious expression on his face as he responded to this mysterious priest's question.

"Shirou Emiya"

While it wasn't shown, Kotomine seemed to be rather surprised by the young man's name and it felt familiar to him as well. "Well then… it is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance…" he spoke without another thought in mind, his glance never leaving Shirou as he continued his speech. "And you are certain that you are Saber's master?"

"Far from it!" snapped Shirou, he never wanted to be part of this whole damned war to begin with but never the less he has no choice but to learn why the masters are pitted against one another. "Listen, all this stuff about masters and grail wars, I don't understand any of it!"

Closing his eyes, Kotomine doesn't seem to blame the younger male for now knowing why was really going on. "Yes, that is a problem…" he said, turning his head to the left before deciding to reveal what the Holy Grail Wars are truly about so he can better grasp on why he needs to take part in this battle royale. "Very well, seeing how this is the first time Rin has ever asked for my help… I believe the least I can do for you Shirou, is to oblige." His attention quickly returned to Shirou as his expression seemed to have hardened. "Listen to me, being a master is not something you can hand from one person to the next, and once you become a master, you can't just walk away from it either. Those command seals on your hand are a sign, the role of masters and trial that has been awarded to you; you can't turn away from it simply because it's inconvenient."

Remaining silent, Shirou glanced at the symbol on his hand once more and wasn't sure how to reply to this, even more so as Kotomine continued his explanation. "If you truly want to give up your status as master, your only option is to obtain the grail and make your wish."

"I see… and what wish is that?" he asked the man in question, finally deciding to speak even if it still didn't seem to make any sense to him.

"It can be any wish, you desire… If you win the grail, you'll have the rare chance to have the contents of your soul wiped clean" answered Kotomine, though there is much more that this legendary Holy Grail is capable of doing which also needed to be properly addressed. "In fact, if you wanted, you could go back in time and start your life all over… So if you get the opportunity, to make your wish and it comes true, then you'll be thanking your lucky stars that you were chosen to be a master." The silence from the boy shows that he isn't so willing to trust him right now which is understandable but in Shirou's mind, memories of a destructive fire that had changed him forever flashed before his very eyes. "If you want to rid yourself of those invisible burdens, your only choice is to except your destiny."

"Kirei, could you please get to the point?" Rin began, hoping that it would make Shirou see what he has to do even though she wasn't too fond of this idea of bringing him to the church in the first place. "I only brought him here so you can explain the rules him, okay?"

"Very well, I'll cut to the chase then…" Kotomine realized that his apprentice was right in a way, so he decided to get to it and turned his head away since it was a rather important matter as of right now, one that needed to be addressed. "Here the principles behind the Grail Wars, it is a series of battles to be fought by seven masters in conjunction with their servants… participants of this war are not chosen simply because they wish to be, they are chosen as part of a ritual to determine who is the most worthy to possess the Holy Grail."

"You're kidding!" exclaimed Shirou in complete shock at this revelation, not liking the idea of having to kill an opponent in battle even if it was another master like himself and Rin but that wasn't the only thing that shocked him. "Are you talking about the actual Holy Grail?"

"Trust me when the Holy Grail materializes in this city, it will be the genuine item… The miracle which is performed by the servants should be proof enough that it real" answered Kotomine, confirming what he was saying about the grail itself was indeed the truth, reminding Shirou of witnessing Saber's brief battle against Lancer from earlier. "Servants are beings who approached the high levels of spirits; they are either legends or historical figures who have been summoned forth by the Holy Grail and materialized here in physical form…. In theory, they remain in spirit form and stay close to their master's side. They are to materialize and fight only when the need arises."

"Yes but Emiya's servant is a bit different," Rin decided to interrupt once again, recalling why she was able to get Archer to go into his spirit form while Saber can't turn into one herself, it still astounded her even to this very moment. "Because her master's an amateur, she can't spirit form."

"Is that so?" Kirei answered, looking at Shirou with interest. "This is quite interesting, though admittedly it can be a bit of a problem for a Magus who takes part in the Grail War. Tell me, young man… how is it that you have met your Servant?"

"Well… I honestly am not sure how it really happened, or why was I chosen…" Shirou explained. "All I know is, it happened right after I was ambushed by some weird-looking guy in a blue suit calling himself Lancer – I guess he was a Servant as well. What happened was… that Saber appeared in front of me and asked whether I was her Master. And… that's pretty much all."

"Oh, I see…" Kotomine answered, his interest growing. This young man was proving to be a far more fortunate catch than he had expected at first. "Well then, as Tohsaka could already have explained to you, the Holy Grail War is a competition between Masters, who battle using the Servants in order for only one of them to remain. The winner will be able to use the Holy Grail to make his deepest wish come true. However, I need to warn you. Is it going to be a brutal competition. You can only rely on yourself and your Servant to make it out alive, and remember that no tactic is off limits. Trying to disable the Servant by killing the Master is a perfectly viable tactic, and has been done before."

Shirou listened to Kirei's words with interest and growing apprehension. His first impressions about the Grail War was that it was going to be a rather brutal affair, and this explanation really made it sound like his first impressions were right… With that in mind, the young man stood and listened to the priest talking about the Grail War, paying particular attention when Kirei spoke of something called Command Spells…

"Exactly, what is a Command Spell?" Shirou asked, as soon as Kirei mentioned the word. The priest motioned for the back of Shirou's left hand, telling him to take a look at it… and when Shirou did so, he saw that there was a strange red mystical-looking symbol engraved in light upon it.

"As you can see, young man… those are your Command Spells." The priest explained. "They represent a Master's absolute authority over your Servant, and they can be used to either restrain or reinforce the actions of a Servant, to the point of allowing them to perform even otherwise impossible actions. They can be used whenever you think you need your Servant to solve a dangerous situation… but take care of using them only when you have no other choice, since you only have three of them."

"This is getting complicated… How did I get into this mess?" Shirou murmured to himself, casting a glance to Saber, who was standing close to him, keeping a straight, almost emotionless face. For all that he was still not convinced about his role in this whole mess, at least Saber was a valid ally, and he was convinced she would try to defend him at all costs…

But this was exactly what worried Shirou the most. He was worried that Saber was going to find herself in a dangerous situation to protect him, and that was exactly what he couldn't accept. He thought to himself that he would have to do something about it, and try his best to protect Saber instead…

"So… in other words, now that I'm Saber's Master… I can use the Command Spells to have her do something that normally she couldn't do?" Shirou asked, wanting to see if he had understood correctly. "And above all… I'm stuck in this Grail War business, and I cannot back down, can I?"

Kirei nodded, smiling thinly to himself. "Indeed. Still, this could very well be your greatest chance. You have been chosen by your Servant to take part in an event thatmight shape the future of the world, for better or for worse." He said. "So, young man, what will you do? With the power of a Servant in your hands, your heart's greatest desire might just come true…"

* * *

><p>"Well, that wasn't too bad, was it?" Rin stated, as the three of them began walking back to Shirou's house. The night had fallen, and Fuyuki City was now wrapped in a cloak of darkness and mist, which managed to make the city look mysterious and disquieting… or was it just Shirou's imagination playing tricks on him? "Now you know what to do in the Grail War… even though I still find it incredible that someone like you became a Master!"<p>

Rin chuckled at that, somewhat bitterly… and Shirou sighed and rubbed his forehead, calling to Rin's attention an issue that seemed to have escaped her notice. "I don't know how you can be so nonchalant about it, Tohsaka… you know that, if this story about the Grail War is true, we will have to fight between ourselves as well, sooner or later."

"Of course I know that." Rin answered simply, shrugging nonchalantly. "I just don't give it much thought. Why should I? That's how it goes in the Grail War, Emiya. And you'd better get used to the idea, because there can be only one at the end of the games. There are no friends here. No rules, no fair play, nothing is off limits. Unless you understand that, you aren't going to last long…"

Saber stopped walking all of a sudden and held out her left hand, motioning for Shirou and Rin to stay behind. "Wait. Someone is coming." She stated, a grim determination lighting up in her eyes. The two Masters stopped, with a somewhat quizzical expression on their faces.

"What's the matter, Saber? Did you feel something?" Shirou asked. The blonde Servant reached for her sword, while Rin frowned and took a fighting stance…

"Somebody is coming. I do not know who, but it is very powerful…" Saber stated, her eyes making out a hulking, muscular figure advancing menacingly towards them, its wild hair waving in the wind, and a pair of baleful eyes glaring at the trio… "It's another Servant, I'm sure of it…"

"What?" Shirou exclaimed, tensing as the huge creature came forward, the ground shakin under its massive feet… and when it stepped out into the light, Shirou, Rin and Saber could see that it was a huge humanoid monster, more than eight feet tall, with lead-gray skin and glowing red eyes, wearing iron bracelets around his wrists and ankles, and a Greek-style iron skirt. However, the most surprising thing was the small girl, no more than 12 or 13 by the looks of her, who was sitting on the giant's shoulder, wearing a purple dress with a matching Russian-style headdress, purple boots and a pure white knee skirt, whose long white hair swayed gently in the breeze, and whose blood-red eyes looked at Shirou, Saber and Rin with a disquieting curiosity, like a child looking at some toys she was about to play with.

"Hello there!" the girl greeted cheerfully, casting a glance at Shirou. "Wow, just as I thought! I found someone to play with! So… will you play a game with me, big brother Shirou?"

"What?" Shirou exclaimed. "Who… who are you? And how do you know me?"

* * *

><p><strong>TO BE CONTINUED…<strong>


	2. Rin's Alliance

Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Zero or any of the other Nasuverse saga series but if I did, there could have been a chance that Saber would be given a happier ending rather than just return to her own timeline (sure there was the epilogue shown if you beat all three Routes from the Realta-Nua version of the visual novel but still) in any chance let's get this started.

On another note, I found out that the 2014 Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works anime is following the Unlimited Blade Works Route, much like the Unlimited Blade Works movie did before this which is strange but whatever, on with the show.

Fate/Stay Night Actress Again

Rin's Alliance

By EmperorDraco7 and co-written by LilyNadesico

There was something seriously strangle about this little girl that approached them, from the looks of it she looked too young to be a master yet the appearance of that large servant of hers would prove otherwise, even more so as said servant's right eye was glowing bright red…. Still, how is it that she knows who he is and why is she calling Shirou her "big brother" to begin with, last time he checked, he was an only child growing up in the care of his adoptive father prior to his death so he would have been aware of any siblings he had at the time. "Don't be like that Big Brother, after all this makes it the second time we've met" explained the girl, smirking brightly at the two teens that were in front of her yet Shirou didn't what she was talking about until something clicked in, he had seen her before long prior to this whole mess taking place.

"This is bad, that things' way out of our league" said Rin, sensing just how powerful that servant they are up against is, she didn't have to do so as by the way it looked shows that it might take Saber's and Archer's combined effort to even survive this encounter if barely but the white-haired young girl didn't think it would be right to kill them without a proper introduction.

"It's very nice to meet you Rin, my name's Illya… Illyasvial von Einzbern" she said, while at the same time, making Rin scowl a bit and wonder how she is Shirou's supposed 'little-sister' but will ask that later should they make it out of this alive while at the same time, she had heard of the Einzbern family during her childhood days. "You know who I am right?"

"Von Einzbern…" It was starting to make the young Toshaka remember her training for the 5th Holy Grail War, more so as aside from the Toshaka family, the Einzberns were from a family of Magus themselves which could mean serious trouble for the both of them.

"There's no point in knowing everybody's name, in just a few minutes you'll all be dead…" the last part that this girl known as Illya said, made both teenagers cringe a bit which only further proved that she was indeed a master taking part in this war if she wants to kill them. "Okay, hope you're ready to die… go get them Berserker!"

The powerful large servant charged with a loud roar right at the two masters, following his young master's orders to slay them right then and there but it was then that Archer materialized himself from his spirit form in order to get Rin to a safe distance so he can properly battle Berserker without risking her safety while Saber took off the jacket she wore to hide her appearance in order to fight her opponent and protect Shirou with her very life. "Shirou stay back!" Saber told the orange-haired master, using her invisible blade to block the killing slash from Berserker before he could attempt to stop her from fighting. But even as strong as Saber was, the blow was just too much for her to handle, and she was sent backwards, her booted feet scratching the ground as she went. She just barely managed to remain standing, and wobbled a bit before regain her footing.

"Saber!" Shirou exclaimed, impulsively rushing to help the blonde swordswoman. Rin raised an arm to keep him from throwing himself at Berserker, who kept advancing, undaunted by the blade Saber was holding in front of herself. Saber herself seemed to be conscious of the fact that she was at a great disadvantage, and was concentrating on avoiding and parrying Berserker's blows, rather than attack him.

"Don't try anything foolish, Emiya!" Rin exclaimed. "You have seen how strong that thing is, right? If it can put Saber on the ropes, you can't hope to put even a scratch on it!"

"But… I can't just stand here and do nothing!" Shirou exclaimed. "Saber is risking her life for me, and you say I should just stay put and watch?"

"You are no match for this one, Shirou." Saber said sternly, her eyes never leaving the colossal brute in front of her, and the mysterious white-haired child that was watching the scene with a grin of vague amusement on her pale face.

"I think you should listen to your Servant. She seems to know what is really going on here!" Illya stated with a creepy-sounding giggle. "And this isn't nearly half of what my Berserker can do! Show them that you mean business, my friend!"

Berserker roared again, a terrifying sound that seemed to shake the ground itself, and rushed Saber with his massive fists, trying to smash her to a pulp. With a quick dodge, Saber managed to get out of the way, and Berserker's fist blasted a hole in the concrete, crushing it as if it was nothing! Saber tried to get away, but Berserker was faster than she expected him to be, and quickly got up and dashed towards her, hitting her with a powerful blow that sent her flying! The blonde female knight was sent rolling on the concrete and painfully began to stand up again, using her sword as a prop. Berserker roared and began advancing towards her!

"GANDR!" Rin's voice exclaimed.

Impulsively, Rin raised an arm and pointed her index finger at Berserker, firing a rapid barrage of shining energy missiles that flew towards Berserker and hit him straight in the chest! But the behemoth did not even slow down, and his rage-filled expression never changed. He just glared back at Rin as if asking if she really thought that weak attack was going to stop him.

"Tch… I knew it wasn't going to work…" Rin muttered to herself. "It was still worth a shot, at least…"

"Hahahahaaa! Sorry, but that two-bit attack spell isn't going to do anything to my Berserker!" Illya said with a high-pitched laugh. "His God Hand will protect him from any attack not packing a huge amount of power! And when I say huge, I mean REALLY huge! More than you can probably bring to bear! Now, come on, big brother, aren't you going to give up and come with me? I've been longing for a real family for quite some time now!"

Biting his lower lip, Shirou knew that he had to do something to help Saber against that thing she was up against, yet before he could say anything he saw that Archer was entering the fray and produced a western-style straight bow that was matte black with one hand while the other formed an arrow which he shot at Berserker without a shred of hesitation, Shirou was shocked when the attack hit its target but as the smoke cleared, the enemy servant was unscathed without any sign of damage."No way!" he muttered, even more so as he sees Saber continuing to combat her opponent. "Saber… don't!"

Rin on the other hand, examined the way Berserker was slashing that giant sword of his and the fact that he withstood an attack from Archer confirmed what Illya said about his God Hand being true. "That sword of his is gigantic… and yet he's swinging it around like a toy…" she said to herself, though from the looks of it Illya knew that it seems there might not be any convincing her 'big-brother' which means killing the two servants she is fighting will just have to make him join her.

"Since you aren't going to listen to reason, looks like I'll have to have Berserker persuade you the hard way…" she said to herself, then glanced at the huge servant with a nod which made him give a loud roar once again. "Go get her Berserker!" Silently complying, Berserker continued his onslaught against Saber and she ran up a lamppost to avoid one slash then jumped to dodge a vertical slice, leading to her landing on the power lines but her biggest concern was leading him away from Shirou and Rin as he could easily kill them with his sheer power.

Needless to say, she had to jump off the cords moments before they were cut by the giant blade the opposing servant was wielding, then she made her way towards Illya, needing to at least take her out if they are to get rid of Berserker, much to the white-haired little girl's surprise, the swordswoman managed to reach her but before anything else could happen, Berserker clashed swords with Saber in order to save his master from possibly being slain and with his strength, he easily pushed Saber away.

Shirou and Rin didn't like this one bit, with the orange-haired young man horrified when Saber hit the nearest pole. "Saber!" he called out, praying that she was okay while Illya was glad for this last minute rescue as she could have been killed right then and there had it not been for Berserker's intervention.

"Way to go Berserker! You got her, now finish her off for good!" she ordered him, watching as the huge man slowly crept towards Saber to complete the task, he then slammed the sword into the ground and it created a tremor that quickly approached the swordswoman but she managed to easily get out of the way and attempted to get in with a swift downward slash, which he easily parried and forced her back, unfortunately the injury she still had from Lancer wasn't helping matters.

Yet Shirou was the first to realize why she wasn't fighting at her best. "She's still hurt from that attack Lancer used…" he muttered, knowing that she won't be able to last much longer if she doesn't get out of there fast. "Saber! Get away from him!" he went over to the female servant, knowing it wasn't worth losing her even if he did agree to take part in this Holy Grail War though Rin kept him from moving any further.

"You idiot, you wanna die?!" she asked him, not wanting him to throw away his life for nothing since they were currently at a disadvantage right now but at the same time, she needed to at least know a bit more about Berserker in order to find a weakness they could exploit.

"But I have to help her! Besides, there is no way in hell I'm just gonna let her life be taken!" he replied, refusing to stand by and do nothing as Berserker could kill Saber which is something he would never forgive himself for if anything happened to her, as nothing they tried could penetrate his body since he withstood not only Rin's attacks but Archer's as well but he'll worry about that later. "Get out of there now Saber!"

Saber gritted her teeth, she couldn't back down even if the odds were against her and she saw Berserker making his next move, without any regrets… she chose to try another direct attack against him but this time, she wasn't fast enough to avoid the slash from the larger warrior, there was nothing but silence as the next thing everyone bore witness to was the large sword hitting its target and blood splattered onto the ground. With an uneasy feeling about all of this, the blonde servant raised her glance… just in time to see that Shirou had placed himself between Berserker and herself, taking the massive blade meant for Saber in the abdomen! The blade had carved a large gaping wound in Shirou's torso, and he was losing a lot of blood, in front of the two shocked and horrified girls!

"Shirou!" Saber exclaimed incredulously. "Shirou, what are you doing? Why did you do that? I could have survived that! You can't!"

Shirou gritted his teeth, blood trickling down his mouth, and shakily tried to stand up. He tried to speak, but he coughed up blood and collapsed on one knee, desperately holding on to the massive blade he had been impaled with. "Ugh… I… c-couldn't let you…" he managed to utter, before the pain and the mass of blood in his throat stopped him from going any further. Rin acted then, despite having been just as shocked as Saber at the sight of the mortally wounded Shirou… and created a series of energy beams on the tip of her index finger, shooting them all that the huge Servant's eyes.

"GANDR!" Rin exclaimed. Berserker stood undaunted though, and simply raised his massive arm and blocked the hits, causing the magic missiles to dissipate harmlessly on the giant's iron-hard skin. Rin gritted her teeth and muttered a curse, having expected her attack not to harm Berserker, but hoping she could at least distract the massive Servant long enough for Saber to strike at him and take Shirou away.

Illya, for her part, her lost her smiling expression, and now stood in place with an utterly bored expression on her face. "Sorry, pretty lady… but these little parlor tricks are not enough to harm my Berserker! His God Hand ability makes him impervious to all but the most powerful offensive spells." She explained, apparently not minding revealing her Servant's skills and powers at that point, when the Grail War had barely even started. "Well… you should have expected that, considering my Berserker is no one else than Hercules, the greatest hero of the Greek mythology himself."

"What? Are you going to reveal your Servant's identity right now?" a surprised Rin explained, as Berserker took his blade out of Shirou's stomach. The red-haired young man collapsed to the ground, clutching the gaping wound in his stomach… but, much to Saber's surprise, she noticed that it had already stopped bleeding, despite how deep it was. Saber and Rin were amazed to say the least… such an injury would certainly be fatal to the great majority of humans, but Shirou, despite being in great pain, seemed to be about to stand up again… there was a large pool of blood at his feet, but the hemorrhaging had stopped like it had never happened, and he seemed to be catching his breath again…

"Well, will you look at that… After all, I suspected big brother wouldn't die just from that." Illya stated, smiling a little before her bored expression returned on her face, and she glanced at Berserker once again. "Well, Hercules… I'm getting bored here, there's just no competition. Shall we go away?"

Berserker lowered his weapon and grunted what sounded like an affirmative, turning his back to Saber and the others in order to bend down and pick up Illya, placing her on his shoulder with a kindness and a sense of care that seemed out of place in such a brutal-looking monster.

"A real shame Saber, you may have been lucky this time but next time we meet, I'll show you no mercy" she said, taking one last glance at the female servant and then did the same for Rin herself as both were looking after the mortally wounded Shirou. "The same thing applies to you lady, let's go home Berserker..."

The moment that Illya and Berserker took their leave, Rin and Saber saw that Shirou had passed out from the loss of blood which was a sign that he might not last much longer without critical medical treatment though the raven-haired girl was angry at what he had done. "What were you thinking running in there like that?! " she lashed, even though he had passed out… she couldn't help but feel angry towards him for taking a blow for Saber. "You idiot! Did you really think you would be able to save Saber?!"

Needless to say, someone was watching this little conflict between Shirou, Rin and Illya from within an unknown realm of some sort, the fight that Saber and Archer had against Berserker piped the interest of a woman wearing a hooded bluish-purple robe since it wasn't every day that a servant let alone two would be able to fight against her biggest obstacle and live to tell about it but there was something else about Saber that caught her eye. _She might prove to be a very useful ally, when the time comes…_ she thought to herself as she knew that Berserker needed to be taken out one way or another.

* * *

><p><em>It felt like he was in some kind of dream, believing his life was starting to appear before his very eyes as a memory of when he was a child with his adoptive father Kiritsugu Emiya at their home in the middle of the full moon. "When I was young, I used to want to become a champion of justice too…" began the older man sitting next to his son, both were in traditional black Japanese outfits during this moment or at least as Shirou always remembered it ever since Kiritsugu took him in as his child.<em>

"_What do you mean used to?" asked a young Shirou, somewhat surprised by the words his father had said to him. "You just gave up on it… Why would you do that?"_

"_Well… it's hard to explain, heroes don't last long but the older you get, the harder it is to be one" answered Kiritsugu, as he had ghosts within him that he felt he might not be able to conquer due to something that changed his life forever…. One that he never told his adoptive son about even before taking the young boy into his home and as a result, the young Shirou looked down onto the porch that he called home. "I only wish that I could have come to that realization sooner."_

_This caused Shirou to look up to his father again and then glanced at the full moon shining down onto the Earth. "I see…" he said, somewhat understanding what Kiritsugu meant. "I guess it probably won't happen for you then."_

"_No… It probably won't…"_

_There was nothing but silence for more than a few seconds but it wasn't for long until Shirou decided to speak up again. "Well, if it won't happen for you… I'll just have to be one instead" said Shirou, hoping to one day become the hero that his father could have become. "Sorry that you've gotten too old for it, but I've still got plenty of time."_

_The wind gently blew within the Emiya residence and yet the two males never noticed as Shirou continued with what he has to say. "You just leave it to me, I'm gonna make that dream of yours come true some day dad. I promise."_

"_Thank you…" Kiritsugu smiled at his son, lowering his head somewhat upon hearing it. "That's a relief to hear that son."_

_Shirou didn't say anything else as he turned to look at his father, while the older man's eyes were closed, he was actually in a moment of reflection over his past actions but Shirou didn't question the reasons for Kiritsugu having done them. Ever since the day he was found by this man and was told about being the only survivor of a fire that killed countless lives, he was grateful that he was his son._

* * *

><p>As the sun shined in his room, Shirou found himself wide awake and for some reason… not dying despite the wound he took to save Saber last night, initially wondering if it had been some kind of dream he was having then quickly shoved all those thoughts out the moment he realized his chest had been bandaged up which proved the events that had occurred were real and the sight of the symbol that appeared at the palm of his hand ever since that fatal night of Saber materializing further proved it. "What the hell?" he asked himself, though at the same time he was still feeling some serious pain from the injuries.<p>

"You came to, Shirou." The familiar voice of Saber greeted him as he slowly regained consciousness, shaking the dizziness out of his head. The blonde swordswoman, wearing her usual clothing, was sitting in a kneeling position besides his futon, and as he turned to her, he could see that, while she kept her calm and composed behavior, there was something about her that suggested that she was angry. It was something about the way she was looking at him, and the tone of voice she was using…

"S-Saber?" he murmured, wincing as the residual pain from his wound forced him to bend over a little. "Ugh… what… what just happened? I… remember taking a blow from Berserker… I should be dead right now… so how am I alive?"

"Yes. That you did." Saber stated icily, in such a way that Shirou was actually beginning to fear Saber was really angry at him. "Why did you do it?"

Shirou was taken aback by that question at first. She seemed to be actually offended that he had taken the blow from Berserker and saved her at the risk of his own life. "Why did I…" he murmured, taking his breath as he tried to shrug off the pain. "I… I don't understand what you mean, Saber… Why shouldn't I have saved you? You were in danger… and it was the natural thing to do…"

"So, you have not taken mind to anything Kotomine told you?" Saber continued, her eyes closed in an expression of indignation. "You are my Master now. It is only thanks to your mana that I can continue existing in this world. If you died, I would be cut off from your mana, and I would disappear and return to nothing soon enough. Us Servants are much harder to kill than a normal human such as yourself, so I would have survived that blow. You, on the order hand…"

"Well… but in the end, I'm still alive, am I not?" he asked rhetorically, rubbing his bandaged torso to ease the pain. "So, as they say, no harm no foul."

"That's not the point, and you know it." Rin's voice intervened, as the black-haired girl walked into Shirou's room, accompanied by a very worried and relieved Taiga. "I still don't understand how you survived that blow, Emiya! Do you have any idea how stupid you've been?"

"Ah… sorry, Tohsaka…" Shirou murmured, before being cut off by Taiga rushing him and hugging him for all she was worth! "Agh! B-big sister Taiga, you don't have to… argh! Please, don't hold me like that, you're squeezing me!"

"Stupid Shirou! Stupid, stupid, stupid! You just had to go and almost get yourself killed, didn't you?" Taiga exclaimed in worry and relief. "I was worried sick about you! But how did you get hurt like that? I was so afraid I would have to see you put in the ground, you fool!"

Taiga placed her face on Shirou's shoulder and began to cry, leaving the young man shocked and guilty at the implications of what could have happened had he not been so lucky. He looked around uncertainly, and saw the glares Saber and Rin were sending his way, beginning to realize what had been wrong with his behavior.

"Next time, you might want to think more carefully about what you do, Shirou Emiya." Rin answered, casting a fierce glance at the young man. "As you can see, there are people who care about you who would be devastated if you died. And as Saber said, you are the only one who is keeping her in this world. So don't go around throwing away your life like that! Next time, I'm not going to take your butt out of the fire, got it?"

Remaining silent, he realized that there were things he would have to discuss with Taiga and the fact that she might have need to reveal the whole truth to her involving what's taking place, on the other hand he couldn't risk her safety in this conflict. "Wait a minute, where's Archer?" he asked Rin, especially as he noticed that Archer wasn't there.

"Hold on, who exactly is this Archer? Is there something you haven't told me Shirou?" wondered Taiga, which made Shirou mentally curse at the fact that the school teacher must not have encountered the male servant of Rin's then again, she did see Saber since the raven-haired girl mentioned before that the swordswoman was unable to go into spirit form due to his being new to being a Master. "Well…. Can somebody here explain to me what's going on?!"

"Uh well….." began Shirou, nearly uncertain how to tell Taiga without making the situation worse and before he could attempt to say something to his big sister, he saw Rin deciding to better process things for the young woman to make it easier for him. "Huh? Tohsaka?"

"You may not be aware of it, but there's a lot more going on than you could possibly imagine Ms. Fujimura" she said to the older woman, especially since she's better at explaining the details than Shirou could and he hasn't fully-recovered yet though from what she could tell, he somehow found a means to heal from what they thought to be a fatal blow, something that usually servants like Saber should be able to do. "It would be better if we discuss this in the kitchen over tea, besides he still need time to heal from his injuries and Saber can look after him for now."

Taiga cautiously nodded her head, then left with Rin to the kitchen and left Shirou and Saber alone with each other once again. "Argh!" he winced, from the amount of pain he received protecting Saber from the killing blow that Illya's servant Berserker used in their conflict from last night which was also the night Saber was summoned to save him from meeting his end at Lancer's hands. _Just my luck…. _

He then found himself subconsciously reaching the spot where Lancer initially impaled him and could see images of when he first saw that servant and Archer going up against one another at the school as well as the pendant he found after finding himself healed, not knowing where it came from… he will need to reflect on that later. _Still, where did that pendant come from and who did it belong to_? He thought to himself, his mind soon had images of Illya. _Now that I think of it, why is that girl with Berserker calling me Big Brother? It doesn't make any sense; dad would have told me if I had any siblings before he died._

* * *

><p>In the meantime, Taiga and Rin were sitting at a table with the younger female having poured each of them a cup of tea since what the latter was going to tell the former may shock her; however it has to be said even if the school teacher would be against it. "I'm quite surprised he doesn't have any descent tea in this entire house…." commented Rin, somewhat disappointed at the kind of tea that Shirou has in his home. "Remind me to tell him that he needs to at least have some triangular tea bags if he's going to be using them to even make tea."<p>

"Maybe, still… this actually place belonged to his father Kiritsugu Emiya… 10 years ago, he was my private tutor" responded Taiga, she hadn't had the chance to properly speak with any of the other students from school aside from Shirou himself and on occasions Sakura whenever she comes to visit whenever she can. "My grandfather knew him during that time and you can say that I've become Shirou's official guardian when his father died one day… "

"I see…." This was actually something Rin never actually known that about Shirou or his late father for the matter, maybe he didn't want to talk about it due to other problems to attend such as needing to become fully-aware of the Holy Grail War that had occurred in Fuyuki City to but that wasn't the reason why she is here with the English teacher in private in the absence of the young man that she revived from the fatal wound inflicted to him from Lancer. "Remember when I brought him home in his wounded state and tended to his injuries with Saber's help?"

"Yeah, I believe I do…. I'm actually grateful that you did, I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself if anything happened to Shirou" responded the female English teacher, though something came to her mind from what Rin had mentioned to her just now. "Saber… you mean that wounded young woman who was with you during that time?"

"Yes, he didn't want to tell you but a war is actually taking place right now" answered Rin, knowing it was time Taiga knew the whole story concerning the conflict that was happening within the districts at night and how the whole city would become a battlefield as of last night which the older woman would not be aware of at the time. "It's known as the Holy Grail War, seven Master and their respective servants have been chosen to participate in the event for one purpose… to face off against each other to the death for the chance to win the Legendary Holy Grail."

"Hey, hey, hey! Hold on a moment, back up here! I'm already beginning to think this is some kind of weird dream!" Taiga exclaimed, looking like she might freak out at a moment's notice. "You just said… the Legendary Holy Grail? As in, the one King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were looking for? The one that was eventually found by Sir Percival, and then was lost to him as well?"

"That very same one, Ms. Fujimura." Rin answered, not surprised that Taiga knew about the legend of King Arthur, since she was an English teacher and she must have had her share of knowledge in English literature. "By getting to the Grail, a Master will be able to make his or her greatest wish come true… but only after besting all others and remaining the only one in the competition. No holds are barred in the Grail War. Pretty much anything is allowed to get to the prize. Emiya and I are part of this competition… even though I still find myself amazed about Emiya, considering I didn't think he was even a Magus in the first place."

"What?" Taiga asked, realizing the implications of what the black-haired girl was saying. "But… hold on a second, doesn't that mean that you and Shirou will eventually have to face each other?"

Rin paused, as Taiga voiced the same concern she had had, but did not dare to voice until now. "Well… we'll think about that when the time comes." She answered after some thought. "But… let's deal with the important issues for now. All the seven Servants have already found a Master, and the Grail War has already started. I… decided it would have been good idea to team up with Emiya, it will give the both of us better chances to survive what is to come."

"And… what about the reason why Shirou came back so injured? Was that… a battle in this… Grail War?" a worried Taiga asked.

Rin nodded grimly. "Yes… that was one of the reasons why I decided to team up with Emiya and his Servant Saber." She answered. "We have ran into another Servant and Master, who are far too strong for us to handle on our own, and might very well be the strongest competitors in this Grail War. My Servant Archer and I cannot hope to stop them on our own, and neither can Emiya and Saber. Only by teaming up do we stand a chance."

"I see…" Taiga murmured worriedly. "But still… how do you plan on doing that, since this guy is so strong?"

Rin shook her head. She hadn't thought that far, at least not yet. "To be honest… I don't know yet. We should count our blessings since Berserker's Master, Illyasvial von Einzbern of the Einzbern family, isn't interested in intervening, at least for now. That gives us at least some more time to prepare." She answered. "Oh, and one more thing… I'm revealing this information to you, Ms. Fujimura, because I know you can be trusted… but you must not tell anything of this conversation to anyone outside this house. Is that clear?"

There wasn't much Taiga could do but nod in assent.

"That's good." Archer's baritone voice said, the dark-skinned Servant appearing next to his Master, and causing Taiga to jump in the air in surprise. "It is already against my better judgment that we are revealing this to you. Make sure you are trustworthy."

"You… you can count on me, Mr… er… Archer? Was that right?" Taiga asked, thinking to herself that he was really good looking, even though he felt familiar to her for some strange reason. It was probably just her imagination, she thought, but she was sure she had seen someone like Archer before…

Archer nodded wordlessly in confirmation.

It wasn't for long before Rin decided to speak up again since she had yet to reveal that there was another servant that they encountered that night and the night before to Taiga but the English teacher needs to be aware of it right now should the worse case scenario ever occur. "There's actually much more to it than just Berserker, before him and his master, we actually encountered a servant known as Lancer" she explained carefully to the older woman, needing to make sure the older woman will be aware of the other servants aside from Berserker. "Archer and I fought him briefly the night before while it seems that Emiya's servant was more than capable of fending him off but not before being injured by his main weapon… the Gae Bolg, needless to say, Lancer's master was nowhere to be seen at all."

"I see…" began Taiga, not sure how to process any of this right now though she is kinda glad that Shirou and Rin wouldn't be fighting each other to the death right now, that is until the other servants and their respective masters are beaten and she cringed the thought of two students in the school would have to kill the other. "Is there anything else that needs to be address so I can better understand it?"

"Yes, aside from the Saber, Archer, Lancer and Berserker class servants, there are also Rider, Caster and Assassin, the only class servants neither of us have encountered yet" responded Rin, giving a serious expression and took a small sip of tea before continuing. "The problem with Saber is that because of Emiya's incompetence, she can't go into spirit form like every other servant could, let alone Saber can't even use her full power in battle either and that is exactly one of the reasons why I took him to Kotomine's church since he was typically clueless on what's going on right now"

"Wait, who exactly is this Kotomine guy?"

"Kirei Kotomine runs the church that I brought Emiya too last night after the fight Saber had against Lancer and before we took on Berserker, though I have to admit… Lancer wasn't that difficult an opponent to deal with as opposed to Berserker" answered Rin as it would be best to worry about Lancer later since she and Shirou have bigger problems, such as Illya and Berserker after seeing how much more powerful in terms of brute force than both Saber and Archer combined, let alone the fact that it would take her and Shirou working together to fight him again. "He is a priest and moderator of the Holy Grail War taking place and he told Emiya about the roles that Masters and Servants have in the war for the Holy Grail itself and he eventually accepted if only to put an end to the war."

As expected, the expression on Taiga's face darkened since she usually tells Shirou never to talk to strangers during his childhood days but Rin bringing him to someone who knew more about the Holy Grail Wars than he did was an exception. "Thank you Ms. Tohsaka" she spoke after a few seconds of pause if not a minute, especially as she herself was not aware of this herself until just recently. "Just one other thing that needs to be discussed, how will you make your alliance with Shirou even work out?"

"I know that you probably wouldn't agree to it but I decided I'll be staying here so we can plan out our next move, in fact it's actually a wise decision seeing as he and I are at a disadvantage against Berserker after seeing what he was capable of" responded Rin, though this shocked both Taiga and Archer as to hearing her decision. "I was hoping that I would have your permission to do so, since Emiya will need to learn how to be a better Magus after hearing that the only thing he is capable of is reinforcement spells, even I learned more spells that any Magus can do by this point and if he needs to survive, he's going to have to learn whether he likes it or not."

There was nothing but silence in the room as normally, Taiga wouldn't allow Shirou to bring in anyone without her consent and the fact that Rin, Saber and Archer will be staying here along with the fact that there is a legit reasoning for this, she wasn't sure how to respond. "Master, may I have a word with you in private?" asked Archer, hoping that Rin and Taiga would be okay with this then the raven-haired girl nodded her head.

"I'll be right back Ms. Fujimura" she responded quickly and went outside the kitchen, hoping that Archer had a perfectly good explanation to why he wanted to speak to her. "Okay Archer, what is with you anyway?"

"I apologize but I'm afraid that strongly advise against your current decision" answered Archer, not approving of Rin's decision of actually forming an alliance and staying at Shirou's home which only adds to the expression that he currently had on his face. "Those two will simply get in our way, you should reconsider."

"Oh really?" asked Rin, deciding to confront Archer right there and then as she didn't know much about him when she first summoned the servant into the war but there was no time to argue right now as he seems to have forgotten what had happened last night. "And if I don't, will you disobey your master?"

That question caught Archer off-guard though she did make a good point as much as he hated to admit it. "Even if I wanted to, I can't… as long as you're my master, I must obey…." He commented after a brief pause though the serious expression on Rin's face showed that she's suspecting that there might be something he is hiding as he decided to leave the room.

"We're not done; I need to know more about you… like which Hero of Legend you actually are…" she stopped him right in his tracks and had a hand on her right him, since she still had all three of her command spells to keep Archer as her servant much like Shirou had all three of his command spells to remain Saber's master. "So what's your real name? Has it come to you yet?"

"No unfortunately, not yet… I'm afraid that my memory still fails me" he replied back to his master, his back was still turned away from her ever since this private conversation started and he didn't bother looking towards her as he continued with what he had to say. "Shall I tell you why that is? It's a result of your poor summoning skills much like how Saber's reasons for being unable to turn into her spirit form was due to Shirou Emiya's ." Without another word, Archer vanished back into his invisible spirt form much to Rin's annoyance with the arrogant comment he told her and even comparing her skills to Shirou's with that remark.

"Why that arrogant… how dare you compare me to him!"

* * *

><p>In the meanwhile, in another place in Fuyuki City… someone else was staring at the city from the safety of his room, casting a haughty glare upon the town. In the Makiri residence, Shinji Matou was getting ready to make his debut in the Grail War, and he was sure he was going to be the winner, and restore the name of the Makiris to its former glory.<p>

"Well, well… looks like we're going to have some competition. But none of them is going to stop me from getting the Holy Grail. Those fools who made light of my family name are going to regret ever trying… and you're going to help me with that, aren't you… Rider?" he said in a smug voice, looking at his side with the corner of his eyes as a lithe, diaphanous figure appeared from thin air behind him, crouched down on one knee in a reluctant display of submission: she was a gorgeous woman with light violet hair, long enough to reach the ground even when she was standing up, and was wearing a black dress with matching arm warmers and a purple turtleneck of sorts, with purple bracelets around her wrists and upper arms, thigh-high black boots and a purple band around her eyes, which gave her a mysterious appearance. She was very tall and attractive, and was holding a strange weapon that appeared to be a long iron chain with a spear on each end.

"As your Servant, it is my duty to aid you towards that goal, my Master." She said, expertly hiding her disgust.

Shinji nodded, pleased at his Servant's display of humility. "Good, good. Remember who is in charge here, Rider. As long as you're my Servant, you have to do exactly what I want." He said arrogantly. "You know what is bound to happen if you disappoint me, right?"

The Servant named Rider silently seethed with anger, wishing she could simply jump at that fool's neck and strangle him to death… but that certainly wouldn't have helped her true Master, and Rider was not going to risk her safety. "I know, Master. I shall not fail you." She answered reluctantly, shuddering a little in disgust as Shinji bend down to her and placed two of his fingers under her chin, propping her head up so that he could look at her in the face.

"I'd appreciate if you had the courtesy to look at me when you answer, Rider." He said smugly.

Rider gritted her teeth, but her expression did not change one bit. "As you wish, Master." She answered. "I shall remember that."

"Good." Shinji answered. For that time, at least, he didn't seem to want to go further, and simply let Rider go after holding her chin for a moment. "We'll start weeding out the opposition soon, so try to keep your strength. And don't disappoint me."

Rider nodded silently, before vanishing with a soft sound of blowing wind. Shinji stood there for a moment, grinning in cruel satisfaction, and resumed looking at the view of Fuyuki City. His ambitions, and those of the Makiri family, would soon be realized. Everyone who had laughed off the Makiris as failures would soon eat their words…

"Soon grandfather, soon I'll win this war and prove to you that I'm not a failure… and I won't end up suffering the same fate that Uncle Kariya was forced to experience in the last war."

* * *

><p>Back at the Emiya Residence, Shirou managed to find enough strength to make his way to the kitchen and saw that Taiga and Rin were waiting for him this whole time. "About time you decided to join with us" commented the raven-haired girl with a serious expression on her face, not bothering to look him in the eye right now. "We have a lot to discuss, plus it would be appropriate if Ms. Fujimura is also present in the area."<p>

Remaining silent, he sat down at the table though felt somewhat uncomfortable about Taiga being with them since he didn't want her to get hurt in the conflict and it was already bad enough that Saber nearly died because of the injury she still had from Lancer even though she appeared to be alright now. "Any idea as to how I'm alive, that blow should have been enough to kill me" he said, even finding it hard to believe that he's not dead from a fatal attack such as the one from Berserker's sword. "Sure I'm not as good a magus as you but there's a lot still on my mind."

"Your wounds just started to heal on their own, from what I can tell… Saber seems to have the ability to regenerate on her own so maybe your body's found some way to tap into that" explained Rin while believing that it was the only logical explanation to Shirou's survival even if he and Taiga are finding it difficult to take into right now. "It's theoretically impossible for a servant to transfer magical powers to their master even if they wanted to. Though let's not forget that you are the impossible master."

"That doesn't make any sense at all" commented Shirou, he immediately recalled that Saber was alright as opposed to the injured state she was when she fought Lancer and Berserker that night, on the other hand Rin had a point since it wouldn't exactly make sense for Saber to be able to transfer any magic to him. "What do you mean impossible master?"

"Masters don't risk their lives to save their servants, yet you did so to save Saber" she began again, once again having her eyes closed at the stunt Shirou did before when Saber would have been critically wounded by Berserker's slash aimed at her torso. "Just think about it, remember that Saber mentioned that if you died then she would disappear too."

"Don't remind me…" he muttered, he didn't need to hear that again whether it be from Saber herself or from Rin and the fact that Taiga was present listening to everything that they were talking about just made things more difficult as the English class Teacher raised him like a little brother after his father's death when he was younger and he felt like she was like a sister he never had. "Bad enough Big Sister Taiga gave me an earful for what happened."

"So Emiya, what's your plan of attack?" Rin asked him, hoping that he'd actually know what he needs to do next unless he plans to keep Saber out of the rest of the conflict, something that would actually be ill-advised as for all she knows, the other masters might strike at his home anytime whether it be in broad daylight or even at the middle of the night.

Remaining silent, Shirou hadn't had thought about it too much lately even when he was recovering in his room during her talk with Taiga. "I don't have one…" he replied, even if it was the truth and it made the raven-haired girl give another disappointed sigh as she had a feeling this would be his response while they never actually talked to each other prior to the war, she did see him interacting with one of his friends Issei Ryoudo at school from time to time. "I just don't want to repeat what happened 10 years ago… All this Holy Grail crap means nothing to me."

"I knew you'd say that, listen up…. If Saber hears that, she'll kill you" said the raven-haired teen, making both Shirou and Taiga shocked to hear her say something like this but she's being blunt and to the point right now.

"She will?"

"How can you say such a thing?" asked Taiga, she decided to speak up since while she's still new to learning about this supposed Holy Grail War it sounded cold even from someone from the same school as Shirou. "Saber helped you bring Shirou back here, so why on Earth would you say she'd kill him for not wanting to go through this?"

Shaking her head, Rin knew this was getting them nowhere at all. "I know it sounds hard but he needs to understand what's really going on" she replied to Taiga and then glanced back towards Shirou himself, since he needed to wake up in order to see reality. "You really think servants would do this without any sort of motives? It isn't just the masters who get their wish granted if they win the grail, the servants get that too remember? It's the only reason many of them become Heroic Spirts, why else would they answer their masters' summons? They each have something that they badly want the Grail to fulfill."

"So Saber's just doing this because she wants the grail?" he asked, not wanting to believe this one bit and winced at the slight pain he still had from that night against Illya and her servant but even so. "But Saber is just as human as I am; she was already injured that night even when Archer tried to fight Berserker!"

"Servants may seem alive but they're not" answered Rin, hoping that it would be enough to make him see the reasoning to what she's trying to explain to him no matter how hard it will be to accept the inevitable truth. "When they die, they simply go back to where they came from."

It was actually another thing he wasn't exactly thrilled about as he would prefer not seeing Saber suffer that exact fate. "That doesn't give a license to kill each other!" he snapped, he was starting to protest against the idea of fighting to the death with enemy masters even if he did decide to take part in the Holy Grail War.

"Shirou!" Taiga tried to speak up again, though Rin held her had as a sign for her to handle it as she's the only person who knows more about the war than either the two in the house put together and the one who has to make him see that it wasn't a game where he could play some kind of hero as sooner or later, he will need to kill in order to save more lives than he would he would realize.

"Listen Emiya, if we let the other masters run unchecked then innocent people are going to die whether you like it or not!" she informed him, not in the mood to argue right now as they were already in a tight situation with Illya and Berserker still being around. "Servants use magical power as fuel, the more fuel they manage to take in, the closer they get to matching the full strength they had when they were alive."

Shirou remained silent for nearly a few seconds, since it still sounded like nonsense. "I don't see where you're going with this" he said, though he gestured for her to continue so he would better understand the information.

"Servants are spiritual entities so eating a person's soul could be a form of sustenance for them" she continued on much to the further shock from both Shirou and Taiga as if they were going to know more about the Holy Grail War, then they will need to pay careful attention to what they are hearing as of right now. "What I'm trying to get at here is that some masters force their servants to eat innocent people's souls just to increase their level of magical power."

This made his eyes widen in complete horror at this and again needed to clarify if what he's being told is indeed true. "Servants go around eating people?!" he exclaimed as Rin went into the kitchen to prepare a fresh batch of tea for the three of them, feeling the urge to curl his hands into fists right now and felt disgusted at the thought of servants doing such a thing. "No… No way… Saber would never do anything like that…."

Pouring some hot water into the tea pot, she saw the expression the orange-haired young man was giving to her and it couldn't be helped as he's not used to being a master yet but will learn soon enough that he can't run from his destiny. "So what are you gonna do?" she asked him again, wanting to be absolutely certain that he's still willing to go through with his decision from before. "Just sit back and watch no matter how vile the masters get?"

With another sigh, he felt as if he may have no other choice but to take on the opposing masters should they resort to such a thing. "If they do that, then I'll stop them" he said, while at the same time hated the idea of taking their life if it would come to that.

"You got to be kidding, you're not willing to attack a Master but if they do something wrong then you'll defeat them?" It was then that she came back with a cup for Shirou, provided that he's able to take it in his current state while at the same time glanced at the boy she met concerning his words. "So basically, you wanna have your cake and eat it too."

"Listen, I realize that I'm trying to have it both ways but I can't come up with any other plan of attack here" he spoke, though is grateful for the cup of tea that Rin's offering him and at the same time is having a bad feeling that he might be facing her and Archer if that's the case.

"Mind if I tell you the problem with that particular approach will be?" she spoke, finding it both strange and stupid that he's planning to wing it with that strategy he current has right now. "That master we ran into last night will hunt us until she kills us…"

As expected, was caught off-guard at the mention of the two they were attacked by as the raven-haired girl took a small sip of her tea then took another look at him. "The servant that little girl summoned is way beyond anything we can handle" she continued, taking once brief look towards Taiga and then back to Shirou. "If we sit and wait, we're dead. I doubt you'll even get a chance to try and defend yourself."

Remaining silent, Shirou glared at Rin for what she's still saying to him as she took another sip of tea and cursed at the fact that she's starting to make a good point then before he lost consciousness completely, he recalled something about that fight that needs to be said. "I just remembered who her servant was, it's Hercules right?" he asked her, wanting to be certain that it is indeed Berserker's real name.

"Yes and she was toying with us last night, you never let your opponent know your servant's true identity… it exposes their vulnerabilities" added Rin, though while Shirou had a sip of his tea it was something that hadn't been brought up until now.

"Hey, I wonder what Saber's real identity is!"

With that said to her, she shook her head and frowned since she asked Archer what his real name was but at least they were alone when she asked him despite the fact her answer is that his memory still fails him. "I think it's probably best if you remain in the dark on that, you look like the type who might let it slip to the wrong person" she replied without any kind of verbal gesture.

As he saw her taking another sip of tea, he couldn't help but be curious on by what she meant on the matter. "When you say that, do you mean to you?" he asked, though the next thing she would say is going to be something he won't expect but for now it's their best chance of being better prepared for the next time.

"Well the last I recall we are still enemies, however for Ms. Fujimura's sake there is actually an alternative" answered Rin giving a small look of annoyance at the comment and there is at least one logical option to make him feel a little better until it is resolved. "The only way we'll survive another possible attack while our guard's done is for the two of us to call a truce, I may not like the idea myself but we don't have much of a choice."

"I would be all for a truce." Shirou answered, not willing to fight against Rin and Archer. He was still worried about what would happen when the time for fighting would inevitably come, but at least now he could think that he'd cross that bridge when he'll come to it. "And as for the rest, well… I think the best thing to do would be… to try and neutralize the other Masters when they step out of line. I want to avoid that innocent people suffer because of this war."

"Okay, fair enough. But in order to do that, I think the best thing to do would be to try and discover who the Masters are and what Servants they have received. We already know about Illya and Berserker, and we know about that Lancer guy too, but we have no idea who his Master is. And then there are the Caster class, which specializes in magic; the Rider class, known for their mobility in battle; and finally the Assassin class, which mostly uses sneak attacks and stealth tactics." Rin explained. "And I wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibilities that someone in our school might have been chosen as a Master. I think the best thing to do, for now, would be to just observe them and try to see if one of them does something suspect. We need to be sure of what to do before we move.

"You're right about that…" Shirou answered, privately thanking Rin for having had the foresight to propose a truce. Her skill and experience were going to be invaluable. "And about Saber… she could come to school as well, don't you think so?"

Rin frowned, wondering whether Shirou was actually that daft or if he was playing a prank on her. "Are… are you serious about that, Shirou? I knew you were ignorant, but not *that* ignorant!" she exclaimed in an annoyed way. "You are seriously trying to say that Saber come to our school and pose as a student? How are you going to explain THAT to the teachers and the rest of the pupils, huh? And don't forget that Saber will be going in a world she knows nothing of!"

"Well… I was just making a proposal!" Shirou said, chuckling in embarrassment. "I mean, it's not like Saber will have much fun staying holed up here… and I don't see what the problem is if we let her enjoy some of the modern day life!"

"Truth be told… I would not mind that." Saber answered, coming out from behind Shirou. Both Masters turned to see the blonde Servant, wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with a blue necktie and a knee-long blue skirt, and black socks that covered the whole leg, walking up to them, seemingly rested and having recovered her strength. "I am rather curious about the world I find myself in. And if I were to help Shirou and you finding out more about the other Servants and their Masters, it would all be an advantage to us, would it not?"

"Saber…" Shirou said as Saber sat on her heels at their table.

For a moment, Rin blinked, not sure how to take the news. Then, she sighed and shook her head, placing a hand on her forehead. "Ugh… why do I even bother… fine, you can come too, Saber… but how are you going to blend in? You'd need a school uniform to attend, and you'd need to be regularly attending lessons. Not to mention, you do not even appear on the registers. You'd need to be enrolled in our school, or you'd end up raising quite a few eyebrows!"

"Oh, well, that's not really a problem, is it?" Taiga's voice asked. The teacher appeared from the same passage Saber had walked out of, cheerfully waving at Shirou and Rin. "I can help with that. I can simply say that Saber here is a transfer student that arrived on short notice, and it shouldn't be any trouble to have her attend lessons. We'll have all the time we need for the formal mumbo jumbo!"

"But…" Rin tried to say, before sighing and understanding that, at least on this one, Shirou and Saber were going to have it their way. "Fine, you win. But don't blame me if something goes wrong, okay?"

_Well, now that I've committed to being part of the Holy Grail Wars, I gotta come up with a way to outmuscle these guys… and depending on how I do that, innocent people might get hurt but if I don't come up with something, they might get hurt regardless…_

While in deep thought, he remembered something that he refused to think about to this day… the event of that fire 10 years ago when he was a small child yet he was the only survivor and he would have soon perished regardless had Kiritsugu not found him. _Dammit… I'm doing this so I can save people, I don't want them to die._

He then reflected on when he took the fatal blow meant for Saber in that battle against both Berserker and Illya since neither she nor Archer were any match for the two. _Saber tried to protect me and she could have been in worse condition than when Lancer injured her… Yet she's still willing to save me no matter how powerful her opponent was._

Shirou then quickly remembered something and turned his attention towards Rin as it completely slipped his mind at the time but now he really needs to tell her. "You know something, I still need to say thank you" he spoke which caught the raven-haired girl's attention and caused her to be slightly surprised by the gesture. "For carrying me home and everything, as well as for going easy on us last night. I appreciate it."

This was the first time someone actually showed her some genuine kindness since the deaths of her parents when she was a little girl, something that she never told anyone at school let alone to Shirou, Taiga, Saber or even Archer since she tends to keep that side of her hidden due to her wanting to win the Holy Grail. "A word of advice, you need to stop thinking of enemy masters as human beings" she spoke after letting out a small sigh. "What I'm saying is that you need to start being more careful… Saber may be a good servant but if you get yourself killed it's all over."

"I understand, thanks for the warning Tohsaka" he responded, deciding to take Rin's advice into consideration and the good thing about being in an alliance with her is that at least they won't have to face one another though the problem is how they'll deal with Illya and her powerful servant Berserker the next time they cross paths with them it wasn't for long that he noticed that a light brown duffle bag was right behind where Rin had been sitting. "What's that bag for?"

"If you don't mind, I would like to pick out my own room" said the raven-haired teenage girl with a slight smirk on her face since she and Taiga made the arrangements earlier before Shirou came downstairs so now she'll be staying by his place so their can further segment their truce. "I'll be staying here for a while, it will make working together so much easier."

"What?" Shirou couldn't believe what he was hearing; in Saber's defense her staying here is unavoidable since he's the one who summoned her when he was attacked by Lancer last night though the fact that Rin's deciding to stay on the other hand is something he's not fully prepared for at all.

"You don't have to worry about what Ms. Fujimura would say about this… we already spoken on the matter and she approved of it" replied Rin, which in a way shocked Shirou even more that Taiga is willingly approving of this since normally she'd be furious if he was allowing total strangers in his place without her consent. "Besides, I'll need to set up a workshop too…. Do you have any beakers and glasses that I could use?"

Shirou blinked. "Hmm… well, we might have something, but certainly not enough to set up a workshop. And even if we did, we don't have a spare room to use for that." He answered.

Rin grumbled a little, and then began thinking of another solution. "In that case, I'll try to make do. For now, this will have to do." She answered. "Well, this should be it for now…"

"Actually, there is another problem I was thinking of. If she's going to pose as a transfer student in our school, Saber will need to look the part." Shirou affirmed. "Do we have a female school uniform we can give her?"

Rin was about to answer, but just then, Taiga entered the room, showing a radiant smile and accompanying a somewhat reluctant Saber, who was wearing a school uniform that the English teacher seemed to have produced out of nowhere: a navy blue long-sleeved sailor fuku with a red ribbon tied in the front and laced through a loop attached to the blouse, white knee-high socks and a pair of brown shoes. Her hair was already done in a braid on the back of her head, with two sideburns on the sides of her head, and a blue ribbon holding it in place. Saber blushed a little and cleared her voice while Taiga proudly showed the results of her work to the very surprised Shirou and Rin!

" Ta-daaan! So, what do you think of this?" Taiga said with a wink. "Doesn't Saber look like a model student? Dressed like this, nobody will suspect anything of her! All we have to do is say that she's a transfer student, and things will be A-Okay!"

"Well… what can I say; we appreciate the effort, Ms. Fujimura…" a rather surprised Rin commented as Saber walked into the room with some hesitation. "Though, it seems Saber isn't that convinced…"

"I feel naked with my armor…" Saber said awkwardly.

"I understand what you mean, Saber, but if you were to wear your armor around here, you'd stick out like a sore thumb." Taiga explained. "We need to keep this Grail War business a secret, right? This will help you blend in, and draw fewer questions! So, what do you think?"

"Well… I will get used to it, I think." Saber said.

"Okay, I guess the day has been hectic enough…" Shirou said, rubbing his forehead. "Saber, we'll be going to school tomorrow, so you'd better get some rest. And Tohsaka, we'll see about setting up a workshop for you later. Thank you for your aid."

Rin shrugged her shoulders. "Make no mistake, Emiya, I'm just acting in self-interest." She said. "We need to work together for now. Don't mistake my willingness to work with you for benevolence… it's just my way to get rid of more dangerous opponents."

"In any event… thank you very much!" Shirou said, nodding to Saber as well. "For now, let's get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow, we'll begin taking a look around at school, and we'll see if we can get more of an idea who the other Masters are…"

"I just hope nothing goes wrong with this." Rin concluded, casting an understanding glance at Saber, who nodded to her and thanked Taiga with a nod.

**oooooooooo**

TO BE CONTINUED…

A/Ns: Well here you go, the next chapter of my Fate/Stay Night fic completed and I would like to thank Lily for helping me in getting it done plus I have to admit, I never thought the 2014 Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works anime would do so well but hey at least it's good to see that a second season is now airing in Japan as I'm curious to see how it turns out plus a Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel movie based on the Heaven's Feel Route is in the works, hope that it will be worth watching when it comes out.


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